As the world has become increasingly connected through digital means it leads me to question whether a distinction between what’s “real-life” and what is digital actually does more harm than good. And is, our digital life, actually our real-life anyway?
I am about to commence a deep dive into the world of digital citizenship and have been prompted to explore the validity of the word “digital” in the term digital citizenship. As the digital becomes more intertwined with our physical lives it seems trivial and almost irresponsible to classify one form of citizenship to be different to the other.
Collins (2005) dictionary define citizenship as: “The fact of belonging to a community because you live in it, and the duties and responsibilities that this brings.” This includes the rights and duties of a person belonging to a community and their conduct within this group.
With online communities being ever more present in our lives today, the same rules surely should apply. I believe that any type of citizenship education should always draw comparisons between our online and physical lives. Some examples include:
- Children must be aware that their safety online is ABSOLUTELY just as important as their physical safety.
- That kindness is kindness no matter where it exists digital or in-person.
- Stealing is stealing wherever it happens.
- Digital artifacts are still artifacts and came from somewhere.
- Students need to respect that information and works of art or literature belong to the creator regardless of where they accessed it.
- And just as it is in the physical world, in the digital world, information can be invented and untrue.
And this only scratches the surface.
So what if we were to take the “digital” out of digital citizenship and decided to simply teach everyone how to be a good citizen in all environments? This would be amazing and would probably solve all of the worlds problems, but unfortunately I just don’t think it would have the same targeted impact. What I do think can have the biggest impact is to ensure that all students have a deep understanding that what happens in their digital world 100% impacts their physical world. We just can’t separate the two. Teaching digital citizenship in a way that continually makes links to our physical existence surely must have a positive knock-on effect creating kind, considerate, empathetic, respectful and responsible citizens both digitally and physically. As teachers we must think holistically and consider the whole picture in order to create the biggest impact.
Teaching students digital citizenship allows us to home in on students’ digital lives, ultimately impacting their physical lives also. This type of education can have the biggest impact when it is taught alongside a strong values-based education. We just can’t successfully have one without the other.
Collins. (2005). Definition of citizenship. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/citizenship